


tradition

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7601533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith’s too busy watching Hunk smile, cheesy and shakily and so happy and he feels like he should jump on him like Lance did and start tickling him. Instead he holds a thermos of water out to Hunk, and tries to mimic his smile because watching Hunk this happy makes him feel. Well, it makes him feel a lot of things. But happy is definitely high up on the list.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tradition

**Author's Note:**

> this is placed sometime when they're still on arus.
> 
> also, if you want music to listen to, i think these two sort of encompass the mood i was going for:
> 
> [el baile y el salón by café tacuba](https://youtu.be/icPwgG4Qb6A) and [first date by toro y moi](https://youtu.be/I5_lwKRCvmI)

Arus has beautiful weather patterns.

Coran was the one who had told them all as much in the dining room one day, just as part of small talk while they forced the goo down their throats. So nobody had really paid much attention to it, except for Hunk, who has a habit of retaining and regurgitating information he’s heard once when it becomes useful. Which is what he did - he looked out the window, saw the Arusian sun sweeping light over the grass and flowers, and thought. Yeah. Arus actually does have pretty beautiful weather patterns.

“We should go outside,” Hunk says.

Lance raises an eyebrow on the other side of the table. They decided to change up their layout a little bit this time - it was weird having conversation with the other paladins when they were right beside you, still slapping the sleep out of their faces and at the same time trying to shovel Hunk’s new concoction into their mouths before training snuck up on them. “Outside?”

“Yeah. Arus has beautiful weather patterns.”

Coran laughs grandly from the kitchen, where he’s packing up yet another of his Altean goos to be cryo-stored. He’d been in low spirits that morning because no one was interested in his delicacies anymore (he really should’ve seen it coming though, it’s been about the fifth day of their refusing it). “That’s it, Hunko!”

Lance snorts at the nickname while Hunk just flusters.

Keith puts down his spoon. “I’ll go.”

“Yeah?” Hunk is excited now, reaching over the table to grab Keith’s hand. “That’s one person!” He squeezes Keith’s hand and Keith frowns, just slightly, before pulling his hand away from Hunk’s grip. Hunk doesn’t notice that nearly as much as he notices the little blush creeping up Keith’s face.

Lance smacks his hand on the table. “That’s settled then, I’ll go too!”

“Hey,” Shiro speaks up. “We have training-”

“No, no. This is good.” Pidge places her spoon in her bowl and stands up to bring it to the kitchen. “I’ve been meaning to work on something anyway. Training is really eating into my tinkering time.”

Allura pats Shiro on the back. She usually finishes breakfast before the rest of them even wake up, runs through her morning routine of checking all the castle’s vitals, and then takes the extra time to spend with her father. Shiro wakes up early too (or doesn’t sleep, no one has figured it out yet really) and usually accompanies the princess around the castle, but he must have been busy elsewhere. “It’s fine, Shiro. You’ve all been working hard. And this _is_ projected to be one of the nicest days in Arus’ cycle.”

Keith sniffs. “Why is Lance coming again?”

“Because we’re going to lay out, right?”

“No, we’re going to-”

Hunk shakes his head. “No, Lance is right. We’re sunbathing.”

“Sun... bathing.”

Lance jostles Keith’s shoulder. “What, you lived in a desert all that time and you’re wary of a little sun?”

“No,” Keith elbows him back. “No! I just thought we were doing something else.” The way Keith says “we” it’s obvious he means him and Hunk, only. Lance scoffs.

“It’s a tradition, _cortito_. Back when it was a nice day at the garrison, me and Hunk would go out and lounge.”

“Do they let you do that?”

“Wow.” Lance laughs. “Hunk, he totally sounds like you!”

Hunk tries to reach over and flick Lance’s nose. “Cut it out, man.” He turns to Keith, looking a little apologetic. “We didn’t pay attention to the rules that much. Trust me, I tried to talk him out of it. But, it’s fun - and there aren’t any rules here.”

Coran sticks his head out of the doorway. “Just wear sun protectant. Here, Hunko, let me get you some drinks. And snacks.”

Shiro sighs. “I’m. Going to go train. Whenever you come back in, we can run through it together-”

“Yeah, definitely,” Lance nods enthusiastically and grabs everybody’s empty bowls. “C’mon, I want to get maximal sun-time.”

 

At first, they sort of stood outside with mats and sunscreen bottles and sunglasses - and Coran’s treats in a basket - and scouted the area outside the castle for the ideal spot.

“Guys, hold on. I have the  _best_ idea.”

Keith had looked confused at Hunk’s exclamation but Lance just did a little dance. “Hunk, you’re a _genius_!”

“Let me put it into motion before you praise me,” Hunk said. Then he put his stuff down and smiled big and wide. “Actually, a little pre-action praise doesn’t hurt.”

So they went from standing to clapping (with mats tucked under their armpits and sunscreen bottles in-between their teeth to free up their hands) and stamping their feet for Hunk, who did a few curtsies and bows, and then sprinted back inside of the castle.

A few moments later they heard a rush, a grumble, and then the yellow lion busted out, all shiny and glimmering in the morning light and with a little dot somewhere inside of it that was undoubtedly Hunk. He brought it over to swallow them and their belongings up, and then they cruised for a bit. The aerial view of Arus was _much_ more suited to finding a good spot. Keith pointed out a few places, but Lance had just shaken his head and shimmied up to Hunk’s side.

“Park it, Hunk.”

“Here?”

“Anywhere. Turns out, it doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t-” Hunk had scrunched up his face. Then his face lit up and he jerked the lion a little bit in excitement.

“You get me?”

“Oh, I’m hearing you loud and clear.”

 

That’s how they end up on top of Hunk’s lion, perched on the head. The metal is hot beneath them, so they still lay out their mats and Hunk tries to set on the cooling system. They spread out, limbs stretched and lax and sunglasses lifted up so they can look at the clouds. Lance and Hunk abandoned their shirts - they’re tied up on the lion’s ears, dancing like flags. Keith can see sun-freckles like little ants marching down Lance's arms, while Hunk has three little beauty marks on his stomach. Even though Keith elected to keep his tank top on, he put on a headband Hunk lent him to keep his hair from sticking to his face with sweat (Hunk used his own hair tie to pull up some hair into a ponytail, and Keith is trying to split his attention between that and the beauty marks in the most inconspicuous way possible).

“Keith.” Hunk is in the middle, and Keith has about two seconds to compose himself before Hunk turns to look at him. “How do you like it?”

“It’s warm,” Keith manages, and Lance sits upright to look at him too.

He puts on a smile that splits his face up into horizon lines and casts sunlight over them like a second sun. “It’s good, right? I think this is the best one we’ve had yet, Hunko.”

“Hunko? God, leave the embarrassing nickname to Coran. Can’t you call me something like-” Hunk smirks. “ _Cortito_?”

Lance flushes, and slides his sunglasses down. He wipes nervously at his nose. “Dude. You’re not short.”

“So Keith gets the cute nickname but I don’t?”

“Hunk _is_ a nickname!” Lance throws himself on to his friend and they wriggle for a bit.

Keith thinks about joining in, but instead he grabs what he’s assuming is lemonade (he hopes, with every fiber of his being, that Hunk had a hand in this picnic preparation) and takes a sip. When the others tire themselves out - tickling? were they tickling? - he pipes in.

“Hunk is a cute nickname.”

He thinks he made Hunk stop breathing.

Lance too, maybe.

“ _Cortito_.”

“What?” Keith thinks absently about dumping his lemonade onto Hunk’s stomach to shock him back to reality.

“You’re right.”

“I’m right?”

“Yeah! I mean, duh! Hunk is a cute nickname. That’s why he has it. Because he’s cute.”

“Lance, don’t start this.” Hunk whines. He went from looking at Keith, mouth wide open in surprise, to biting on the arms of his sunglasses.

“I said the exact same thing when we started doing this. The sunbathing. Hunk is really cute!”

“Yeah,” Keith says, because now he’s sure that Lance isn’t joking around - not that he definitively thought Lance would joke about this, but he thought Lance would say something to rile him up or just launch back into tickling Hunk and that’d be the end of it. “Yeah. Hunk is cute.”

“Right? You heard him giggling while I was tickling him, he’s totally - can you pass me the basket - _totally_ the best.”

“Guys, you’re _embarrassing_ me.”

Lance swallows down a mini-sandwich and pats Hunk’s side. “You? What do you have to be embarrassed about? I’m the one who’s embarrassed! I didn’t know Keith was that smart.”

He doesn’t even bother to get mad at that. Keith’s too busy watching Hunk smile, cheesy and shakily and so _happy_ and he feels like he should jump on him like Lance did and start tickling him. Instead he holds a thermos of water out to Hunk, and tries to mimic his smile because watching Hunk this happy makes him feel. Well, it makes him feel a lot of things. But happy is definitely high up on the list. “Thanks,” Hunk says, fighting off Lance’s tickling fingers with his left hand and grabbing the thermos with the other. Hunk’s fingers brush over Keith’s and Keith swallows, loud, and then Hunk is taking the thermos away and tipping it up to his mouth and -

There’s water spilling all over him.

 

They tie Hunk’s mat up with his shirt to dry out in the breeze. After some fumbling and laughter - mostly on Lance’s end, since he’s bubbling over with it as he strokes Hunk’s hair and Keith apologizes a million times (Hunk insistences a million times _more_ that it’s no worry, he’s actually really refreshed now - he just doesn’tget that Keith isn’t as upset that it _spilled_ as he is that he’s kind of _happy_ it spilled because Hunk is _so cute_ ) - they put together Lance and Keith’s mats and Hunk lies down in the middle, while the other two pack in at his sides.

Lance drapes one hand out to the left and he holds Hunk’s hand in the other. Keith sees it, and he wants to do the same thing - but he’s not sure, he’s so indecisive about it and he wants to but doesn’t know if he _can_. Then Hunk worms his fingers apart and snuggles his hand into Keith’s, and Keith squeezes their hands together as if to say thank you. Hunk looks skywards.

“We still have a couple hours of sun left.”

“I wish we had a radio.”

“Y’know, I was trying to make one a while ago but left it unfinished.”

“Guess we’ll just have to do this again, then.” Lance doesn’t sound the least bit upset at that.

“Yeah,” Hunk says. He lets go of both of their hands and instead pulls them in by their shoulders. “I guess we do.”

Lance fidgets a little bit - (“Hunk, you’re sweaty!”) - only to be pulled in tighter - (“What? Your hands are as sweaty as I am! And besides, Keith’s not complaining.”)

They spend the rest of their daylight out on top of Hunk’s lion. Once the sun starts setting, they pack up. It’s when Keith points out the sunset that they pause, and watch, and tell little stories to fill up the silence.

Then they untie their belongings from the lion’s ears, climb down, and let the warmth spread out of them.

“Hey,” Lance says. Keith lifts his head up. Hunk had put up some hammocks, albeit a little haphazardly, for them to lay in on the trip back. “You’re welcome back, you know.”

Keith nods, but Lance isn’t finished.

“You’ve got the membership card.” Keith raises an eyebrow, and Lance grins. Motions for Keith to look at his right shoulder.

“You drew on me?”

“Nah. I got Hunk to do it while we were laying down.” He lifts up the back of his left hand to show Keith his own matching tan-tattoo - a little smiley-face. “It’s your membership card.”

Keith frowns. “Why does it have dimples?”

“Hunk drew it. I got him back - his has a mustache. And it’s on his cheek, too. Coran is going to be so happy.” Keith swats at Lance and the other avoids, but gets himself tangled up in his hammock. Keith’s is swinging back and forth as he tries again.

“Hey, don’t get mad!” Lance laughs and Keith is glad he’s cocooned in the hammock because he can’t see that Keith - Keith isn’t mad, he’s so happy, and warm, and sated on laughter and smiles more than he is on the snacks they brought, and. And he wishes that they’d all met sooner, that maybe he hadn’t left the academy, at least not before he met them. He’s so happy he’s got to be red (though he thinks he might be too, from sunburns) and he must’ve thought too soon, because Lance pops his head out of the hammock and says - “C’mon, Keith. It’s tradition.”

Keith lays back in his own hammock to keep Lance from catching sight of him, him and his easy fuzziness and his hands that are still warm from Hunk’s grip.

He really likes the idea of this tradition.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!
> 
> i got interested in this idea of them three hanging out and sunbathing...  
> the idea was definitely inspired by: [feastevil's art](http://feastevil.tumblr.com/post/148030646898/for-your-consideration-this-evening-these-are-all) (the third pic)!
> 
> also i felt bad for keith. who would probably feel discouraged by the big bond that hunk and lance have. so that's where the idea of the smiley-face came in - it's something cute that includes him? so that instead of feeling left of of old memories that just hunk and lance share, he feels included in the new memories for all of them :-)


End file.
